The cardiovascular, cancer, and survival benefits of regular aspirin use outweigh the harms for average-risk adults, according to a comprehensive review.
The relative risk reduction was between 7% for women and 9% for men for myocardial infarction, stroke, and cancer combined over a 10-year period. Long-term, regular aspirin use was associated with a 4% reduction in the risk of premature death over 20 years.
The benefits appeared to increase with the duration of aspirin use but not with the dose, Jack Cuzick, PhD, of Queen Mary University of London, and colleagues concluded in an article published online in Annals of Oncology.
“It has long been known that aspirin — one of the cheapest and most common drugs on the market — can protect against certain types of cancer, but until our study, where we analysed all the available evidence, it was unclear whether the pros of taking aspirin outweighed the cons,” Cuzick said in a statement.